NYC has anthro animation festivals, too

Despite the implication on Flayrah, Los Angeles is not the only city to have festivals of animation with anthropomorphic stars. On February 28th through March 24th, the 16th Annual New York International Children’s Film Festival will play at seven different locations in NYC. The Festival will screen 100 different films (some live-action), and is expected to draw an attendance of 25,000+. It will present many of the films in the U.S. for the first time, to qualify them for 2013 Oscars.

Among the films are several that have been covered on Flayrah, including the Belgian Ernest & Celestine, about a mouse and a bear who become friends (French with English subtitles; Feb. 28 at Tribeca Cinemas); The Wolf Children (Ame & Yuki, the Wolf Children), about a college student who marries a werewolf who dies, and must raise their two werewolf toddlers alone (Japanese with English subtitles; March 3 at the Asia Society and 16 at SVA); The Day of the Crows, mostly about a feral child raised in the forest, but with some fantasy scenes of anthropomorphic animal-headed forest spirits (French with English subtitles; March 10 at FIAF); Welcome to the Space Show “with an intergalactic cast of thousands” (premiere of the English dub; March 9 at SVA), and Meet the Small Potatoes, for pre-schoolers about a musical group of animated potatoes who rise from small-town beginnings to international rock stardom (March 16 at the IFC Center and March 24 at the DGA Theater).

Other animated features include some with children and realistic animals, or which have brief sequences with fantasy animals, such as Zarafa, about a small African boy who follows his pet baby giraffe who is sent to Europe as a gift for King Charles X of France (loosely based on a true incident; French with English subtitles; March 9 at SVA and 24 at the DGA Theater); Starry Starry Night, live-action about Mei, a dreamy schoolgirl who imagines animated animal friends, some in animated origami (Mandarin with English subtitles; March 2 at the Scholastic Theater); a new Italian Pinocchio closer to Collodi’s original story than Disney’s (in English; March 10 at FIAF); Hey Krishna, about the Hindi god Krishna’s youth, with brief appearances of anthropomorphic monsters and demons (in English; March 16 at FSLC and March 17 at the IFC Center); and The Painting, starring figures from both finished and unfinished paintings (premiere of the English dub; March 2 and 23 at the Scholastic Theater).

Still others have no anthropomorphic aspects but will be of interest to animation fans, including Studio Ghibli’s From Up on Poppy Hill (in English; March 2 at SVA and March 10 at FIAF); and Kirikou and the Men and the Women (French with English subtitles; March 9 and 24 at the IFC Center). Or if you want to see the Spanish dub of Disney’s Wreck-It Ralph, here it is (March 16 at SVA).

Tickets are for sale on gkids.com. Screenings are expected to sell out, so advance online purchase is recommended.

The 16th Annual New York International Children’s Film Festival, February 28th through March 24th, has added two additional screenings of the Japanese “The Wolf Children” (“Ame and Yuki, the Wolf Children”), in Japanese with English subtitles. The original announced screenings are March 3rd and 16th; the additional screenings are on March 9th at 4:00 and 6:30 p.m. at the SVA theater. There will be Q&A sessions at both screenings with Director Mamoru Hosoda.

“Due to overwhelming demand”, the Festival has added four more screenings of Studio Ghibli’s new “From Up on Poppy Hill”, in English. The two announced screenings are on March 2nd & 10th; the new screenings are all on Saturday, March 16th – 11:10 a.m. & 1:00 p.m. at the IFC Center, and 11:00 a.m. & 1:10 p.m. at the Elinor Bunim Munroe Film Center. “Poppy Hill” is absolutely non-anthropomorphic, but it is a new animated feature from Studio Ghibli.